Even the big ones.
[Scene: IB Music class. Me sitting at a table with seven 17- and 18-year-olds. Textbooks are open and we are discussing the music of Europe from the Middle Ages until about 1750.]
Andy: If you could have lived in a time period other than now, just to see what it was like, which one would you choose?
Ted: I would have liked to be rich and educated …
Lou: [interrupting] Umm, if you were rich then you were educated. They kind of went together back then.
Ted: Okay fine, then I would have wanted to get educated so I could get rich.
Me: Mmm, remember, upward mobility was rather difficult in that era. The class structure was much more rigid than it is now.
Lou: [laughing at Ted] Unless you wanted to be a superstar castrato. You could get rich that way. Go back then, get castrated, be a star tenor in all the operas. That was moving up. [Ted drops the point and gives his best friend a withering look.]
Sarah: I’m kind of curious about the Renaissance.
Lou: [Ignoring Sarah] I think … I would have liked to have lived in the ’80s.
[Blank stares from most of the group. I’m starting to laugh on the inside.]
Andy: As in, the 1980s?
Lou: Yeah. They had such awesome music back then.
Andy: Ms. Lillis, weren’t you around in the 80s?
Of Wonders & Wanders 
Leave a Reply